Yesterday evening I was fortunate enough to share in the making of tortillas with my host family. The process itself was simple and delicious. It started with procuring the flour (harina) which we got from the local market, it was a generous two pounds. Next, we simply added water to make masa.
I originally thought masa was corn flour, but it isn’t. It’s actually the combination of water with the harina (corn flour) that creates the masa. This you kneed until it forms the correct texture. I correlated the consistency with pizza dough. Just my little way of trying to make it stick in my mind and not my hands. The kneading process took about five minutes and required adding water slowly, not all at once. As the desired consistency of the dough is reached we are now ready to make tortillas. Well, almost. We cut a piece of plastic wrap and laid it on top of the tortilla press.
This was to prevent it from sticking to the press. Now we are ready to press them. We took a small amount of dough, about half the size of a baseball, and placed it on the press. We then pressed down in the middle of the dough to help it spread better. Once that is complete you close the press and give it a few good up and downs to make sure the tortilla is flat. It was referred to as giving CPR to the tortilla and it worked wonderfully. Now that the tortilla was pressed flat we had to pound it out with our palm. The process is called tortear and requires a little stamina. Although it just may have been the amount we made that makes me think such. Anyway, after the tortear process, they are placed on a flat iron/griddle to cook. This process doesn’t take long but you are looking for something specific, the panza. The panza is a little bubble that forms on the tortilla as it cooks. I thought of when I was a child and would have a fried bologna sandwich and the middle would rise up. Same thing with the tortilla. Once the panza forms (bubble) you flip and let it finish cooking. The panza will remove itself when you flip it as well. After it’s done they are placed in a town where they are sorted and some are frozen. Others are left out. And that’s the entire process.
After the first one finished I was offered a tortila con sal. I quickly replied with, “no, se. que es consal?” I was offered a funny look until my host quickly figured out I wasn’t able to catch the pause between con and Sal. She quickly let out a laugh and said, “con… Sal”. I quickly fell into a fit of laughter at my fumble, but gladly accepted the correction. After the laugh, I had a fresh tortilla con sal. For simply being a tortilla with salt it was surprisingly good. Then when we finished I was offered another treat. A quesadilla. As they split the tortilla I instinctually asked, por que (why)? I had never seen a quesadilla made this way. They explained it was how they always made quesadillas. They simply cut the tortilla and fill the middle with cheese. They then throw it on the griddle for a minute and cut it in half to serve. The salty flavor of the queso was amazing. It was one of the best quesadillas I’ve ever had. I’m truly thankful for the gift of love this family is sharing with me.
“The fact that Westerners identify remote country as wilderness reflects their inability to conceive of occupying and utilizing an environment without fundamentally altering its natural state” ~Richard K. Nelson
RighteouslyUnscripted 